Transgender women banned from women's cricket in England and Wales

LONDON — Transgender women are to be banned outright from women's and girls' cricket in England and Wales.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said Friday it had updated its previous restrictions following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month.

''With immediate effect, only those whose biological sex is female will be eligible to play in women's cricket and girls' cricket matches'', the ECB said Friday. "Transgender women and girls can continue playing in open and mixed cricket."

The announcement comes a day after transgender athletes were banned from playing on women's soccer teams in England and Scotland by the Football Association.

Transgender women were already banned from the top two tiers of elite women's cricket from the start of this year but had been permitted to compete in the women's game at lower levels including recreational cricket.

No longer.

The U.K.'s highest court issued a ruling two weeks ago that defined a woman for anti-discrimination purposes as someone born biologically female. The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said after the ruling that transgender women would be excluded from women's toilets, hospital wards and sports teams.

While the ruling was cheered by some feminist groups, it has been condemned by trans-rights groups who said it would have a broad and detrimental impact on daily life.

The issue has been polarizing in the U.K. and beyond, particularly in the United States, where President Donald Trump has signed executive orders to prohibit participation of transgender athletes in sports and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.

Reactions to cricket ban

Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters charity, said: ''The ECB's two-tier policy was never coherent. Restricting the top end of the women's game to female-only showed that it understood men's size and strength confer an unfair advantage in women's sport.

''But protecting around 300 women in England and Wales while leaving the other 33,000 female cricketers to face male bowling and batting was indefensible.''

A spokesperson for Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, said: "The recent decisions of sporting bodies to ban trans women from women's sport have been made too soon, before the implications of the Supreme Court's ruling have been worked through by lawyers and politicians or before statutory guidance has been issued.

''It is very disappointing as several of them have been long term and vocal supporters of our Rainbow Laces campaign, advocating for inclusion in sport for all ages and at all levels."

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